I know, I know. You've all been dying for a potty update for my 18-month old. So here you go.

Although she probably could be, she is not yet in underwear, because I'm not ready to commit. We had a lot of backsliding in the #1 department while my in-laws were here and while we traveled over the holidays (mainly because no one was taking her to the potty), but, thankfully, she has had only an occasional poop in her diaper in the last several months. No poops in the diaper during our holiday travel -- hooray (we took our favorite potty with us)! However, a poop in the diaper last week resulted in a horrible rash. She was only in contact with the poop for seconds or a few minutes. The rash looked like a second-degree burn and turned into near-blisters. It was absolutely terrible. These episodes are what continue to motivate me to take her to the potty regularly.

Although our potty trips are pretty short generally, when things get extra busy, I tend to get lazy about it. At our best, she was peeing 4-6 times a day on the potty. I still try to put her on the potty when she wakes up in the morning, after meals, and after her naps. She very rarely asks to go to the potty (by signing). When she does, we really try to put her on the potty if at all possible. She used to often wake up dry after naps and in the morning, despite nursing 2 to 100 times during the night (we co-sleep). We are currently in the process of night-weaning, so that has thrown things off a bit for the time being. Once she is nursing less, I imagine it will be easier to get her to pee nearly all the time on the toilet, since she won't be drinking so much.

For a while, I could leave her on the potty with books and go do other things. But now my little girl can get off of the potty by herself and crawl around the house, so I stay with her or very near to her while she's on the pot. I can make the bed and fold clothes in my adjacent room, but that's about it. She continues to enjoy looking at board books while on the potty. I rotate them pretty frequently now.

Since she is just beginning to walk a lot, I often hold her hand and walk with her to the potty when it's time to go. She stands in front of the potty while I pull down her pants and undo her cloth diaper while she holds onto my legs. Then she sits down on the potty by herself. We have been undressing in this fashion since she began cruising and standing. I still have to lay her down to put back on her diaper. I think I will like just pulling on her underwear while she sits and stands in the bathroom once we transition to underwear. She is at times very uncooperative about having her diaper put back on (I now see this as a sign of potty training readiness) and will crawl all around the house half-naked if given any opportunity.

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